University to Close at 5 p.m. Tuesday (March 3)

The University will close at 5 p.m. today (Tuesday, March 3). All evening classes
scheduled to start at, or after, 5 p.m. are canceled. Food service will be open until
8 p.m. in Connecticut Hall, and until midnight in the Adanti Student Center.

'Bearing Witness to a Lost History'

An exhibition of photographs and text from Philosophy Professor Armen Marsoobian’s
extraordinary family collection has recently been on display in a gallery in Istanbul,
Turkey. The exhibit – “Bearing Witness to the Lost History of an Armenian Family
through the Lens of the Dildilian Brothers” – told the story of his family against
the backdrop of events that included a war that ravaged the world and a collapsing
empire. The exhibit, which opened April 25 and closed June 8, was timed to coordinate
with April 24, observed annually as the symbolic start of the Armenian Genocide, and
has received a great deal of international press coverage.

Marsoobian’s grandfather and great-uncle, Tsolag and Aram Dildilian, were photographers
employed both by Anatolia College in Marsovan, a town in Ottoman Turkey, and the local
government. From 1890 to 1922, Tsolag was a significant photographer in the region
where the family resided. A large collection of photographs and glass negatives came
down to Marsoobian from his “family of many photographers,” and he now possesses over
600 photographs from the Dildilian brothers’ collection, many of which date from the
period 1910 to 1922, which encompasses the years of the Armenian Genocide.

The Armenian Genocide, says Marsoobian, refers to the deliberate and systematic destruction
of the Armenian population of the Ottoman Empire during and just after World War I.
It was implemented, he says, through wholesale massacres and deportations, with the
deportations consisting of forced marches under conditions designed to lead to the
death of the deportees. The total number of resulting Armenian deaths is generally
believed to have been between one and one and a half million.

Anatolia College is now located in Greece, and in 2009 Marsoobian was invited to the
college to give a number of talks based on the photography collection. In doing research
about the collection and his family history, Marsoobian received new information from
members of the family. He learned that quite a bit had been written by his great-uncle
and his great-aunt’s daughter pertaining to the photographs, including include two
lengthy memoirs, as well as family letters and diary entries.

Marsoobian explains that Armenians were a minority in Ottoman Turkey but were instrumental
in having Anatolia College come to Turkey. At first, the students primarily came from
the Armenian and Greek communities. Marsoobian says that although there were Turks
who tried to help Armenians, the Turks generally avoid use of the word “genocide”
and instead refer to the “catastrophe of 1915” or “events of 1915.” For the first
time a few years ago, there were public commemorations of the genocide in Turkey.

Marsoobian previously wrote a prize-winning essay dealing with the efforts of his
grandfather and great-uncle in rescuing 30 young men and women in the period 1915
to 1918 in their hometown of Marsovan. He has also given lectures on the photography
collection. Next he hopes to take the exhibit to Marsovan and possibly to France and
the United States.